Rio Tinto ramps up copper production as Trump preps fresh tariffs
The mining giant, which this week named iron ore boss Simon Trott as its next chief executive, told investors on Wednesday that 2025 copper output has been boosted by the 'continued successful ramp up' of its Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia.
Rio Tinto is making progress towards making the mine the fourth largest in the world by 2030. It also expects 'good performance' at Escondida in Chile – the world's largest.
The group now expects copper output to hit the top end of a 780,000 to 850,000 tonne forecast, while 'good cost controls' are set to drive the cost of production lower than initially forecast.
It follows upheaval in copper markets amid the threat of 50 per cent tariffs set to be imposed on US imports from 1 August
In response, a wide gap has opened between the price of the metal traded in the US compared to prices in London as exports from other countries become less appealing.
As Trump ploughs ahead with efforts to force greater onshoring of US industry, Rio Tinto already suffered a £300million tariff hit within its Canadian aluminium business in the first half. However, this was partially offset by US premiums for the metal.
The group also reported its strongest second-quarter iron ore production since 2018.
It boasted a 13 per cent sequential rise in second-quarter production after rebounding from extreme weather-related disruptions earlier this year.
The world's largest iron ore producer shipped 79.9 million metric tonnes (Mt) of the steel-making commodity from its Pilbara operations in the three months ended June 30, up from 70.7 Mt shipped in the March quarter.
However, this fell just short of guidance.
Outgoing boss Jakob Stausholm said: 'We delivered excellent operational performance from our mine operations.
'We will continue to drive progress towards our long-term strategy to deliver profitable growth and build a stronger, more diversified business.'
Rio Tinto shares were 1.2 per cent to 4,398.5p by midmorning, having lost 13.4 per cent over the last 12 months.
Adam Vettese, market analyst at eToro, said: 'Overall, the results highlight Rio's quality asset base and improving diversification but challenges in optimising system capacity and delivering higher-quality product remain areas to watch.
'Investors will be looking for continued improvement in execution heading into H2, particularly in iron ore shipments, to unlock full value from the stronger underlying production performance and hope to see this trigger a reversal in the prevailing trend direction of the shares.'
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'Finally, we had to say, 'You know what, no one's coming. Cavalry is not coming. We're going to have to take care of this ourselves,'' Overstreet said. Overstreet spent eight years trying to solve the grocery problem in her district, which included spearheading partnerships with public schools and local churches where people could pick up food. Today, she's proud to be bringing a new, full-size grocery store to her district with the backing of Invest Atlanta, the official economic development authority of the city, in partnership with Savi Provisions, a specialty private grocer. The resulting public-private partnership isn't an exact parallel for the municipally owned stores that Mamdani has proposed for New York, but it's a reminder that when the private market left to its own devices is failing a community, government officials can find creative ways to step in. 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Passing along similar benefits to civilians is quite possible, according to Schweitzer. 'It's not a radical proposal,' he said. 'There already is heavy government intervention in the food system every day.' So what would it take practically to make Mamdani's proposal work in NYC? According to Overstreet, the councilmember from Atlanta, community buy-in is key. In her district, Overstreet sought feedback about what kinds of products community members wanted access to, down to the preferred variety of apple. Overstreet and her team did this through roundtables, pop-up meetings, and both paper and online questionnaires to try to reach the widest array of people. Chworow, who researched public food infrastructure over the last century, said that creating a universally useful resource – not one that just serves targeted groups, like low-income families – is also crucial. 'As soon as you start to target the interventions, there's a level of stigma that comes around it, and people are reluctant to use them because they don't want to be associated with the stigmatized group,' Chworow said. 'Promoting it as a universal service removes those barriers, and it also oftentimes makes the economic model better.' Some of how military commissaries – and grocers like Walmart, for that matter – deliver low prices is through economies of scale, using their size and buying power as a network to negotiate lower prices with wholesalers. That could pose a problem to Mamdani's plan, as he's proposed opening just five municipal grocery stores total, one for each borough. But Schweitzer pointed out that the city already buys extraordinary amounts of food for public schools, hospitals and community colleges; by linking the grocery stores to those existing agreements, he noted, they might likewise take advantage of economies of scale that would otherwise be out of reach. Schweitzer, who has written extensively about how to make a public grocery sector work, also recommends looking to successful grocery store chains for cues. Operating like Aldi (which is to say, opening lots of smaller stores with a limited assortment) or Costco (which is to say, operating as a warehouse store; 'literally a distributor that sells to the public'), he said, could help make municipal grocery stores a success. Lastly, noted Caruso, it was worth reminding community members that such an initiative will take time to realize. Overstreet noted that it took her eight years of work to get the new grocery store in her district under way. The historical precedent, efforts in other cities, and parallels with the US commissary system of course don't prove that New York's attempts will be successful. Municipal grocery stores will have to battle many of the same problems that have sunk hundreds of private grocery stores in the city in recent years. But these examples do provide ample evidence that government-run food infrastructure can work, given the right support and proper management. 'It's not to say that anything is easy, but of course it can be done,' said Mullins. 'Just look at these other public options – the post office, public libraries, public schools. These are great things that have been critical parts of communities for a very long time.'
